Home security systems have included a control panel that manages communications from sensors distributed throughout the house. That control panel has consisted of a large metal box designed to be installed in a hidden location within the house, such as in the basement or closet, and is often co-located with an electrical services box for the house. Co-locating the control panel with the home electrical services box made configuring power and other electrical and interconnection with communications interfaces for the security system control panel convenient.
In wireless home security systems, distributed sensors can communicate with the control panel wirelessly. The wireless sensors communicate with the control panel, for example, when a state of the sensor has changed, such as a reed switch that has changed state due to a door being opened. In addition, wireless sensors may communicate with the control panel on a periodic basis making what is typically called a “supervisory” transmission, for example, to communicate that the sensor is working properly and that its battery is satisfactory. Depending on the state of the control panel (for example, whether in an “armed state” or not), the control panel determines whether the state information provided to it by the sensors constitutes an alarm condition, and if so, the control panel can be programmed to take the appropriate action, such as sounding a siren, making communications to a remote monitoring system, etc. Wireless security systems have used certain standard frequency bands and often proprietary data transmission protocols. Standard wireless security system frequency bands that have been used were selected because they are optimized for enabling inexpensive, low-current transmitters housed with the distributed sensors. Example standard security system frequencies include 300-500 MHz, 902-928 MHz, and 2.4-2.5 GHz (the latter being the frequency used in ZigBee wireless communications).
In addition, home security systems have also included a user interface/control device specially designed for the security system, and that can be installed in a more readily accessible location within the house than the location for the control panel, for example, by a door of the house or in a bedroom. The security system user interface/control device was typically designed to be powered principally by hard-wire connections, and was designed to communicate with the control panel either over a hard-wired connection or by a wireless transmission. In cases where the user interface/control device was located near a door and that location was not provided with electrical power, electrical power often needed to be provided to that location. In some designs however, the user interface/control device was a battery-operated device which made installation into an existing home less of a burden, and that device would use the same standard security system communication bands to communicate with the control panel that are used by the wireless sensors. But in this case, having a battery-operated user interface/control device imposed the requirement that the batteries in that user interface/control device be changed or charged periodically.
Security system control panels have been designed and configured to communicate with devices and systems that are remote of the premises. In such a security system, the control panel is provided with interface equipment to interface with telephone and other wide-area communications networks, including, for example, land-line telephone systems, cellular communication networks, cable lines, etc. This capability has enabled the security system to communicate alarm conditions at the premises to a remote monitoring service or a device such as a computer or smart phone utilized by the homeowner in a remote location. This capability has also enabled the security system to be controlled from remote, using for example, a telephone, computer, smartphone, etc.
Self-contained control panels have been used that incorporate both a control panel and a user interface/control device in a single device housing. With such self-contained control panels, the control panel device can provide the user interface for system operation and programming system functions, and can be designed and intended to be placed in a readily accessible location within the home, for example, installed on a wall by a door or placed on a table in a convenient location. Such self-contained control panels have smaller form factors due to market preferences, which can make them more susceptible to electrical interference issues between closely-spaced system components, such as high speed microprocessors and antennas.